


No Dragons Here

by calikocat



Series: Dragon Verse [7]
Category: Adam-12, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Diagnosis Murder, Emergency!
Genre: Dragons, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 02:03:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7134119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calikocat/pseuds/calikocat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the worst day he could remember.  His best friend and his family were just...gone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Dragons Here

**Author's Note:**

> Word count: 5613  
> Disclaimer: Adam 12, CSI, Diagnosis Murder, and Emergency! don't belong to me.
> 
> A/N  
> Note 1: Fic takes place in 1974.  
> Note 2: Steve is still over in Vietnam.

No Dragons Here

XXX

They had started talking about a vacation after only a few weeks of being together. There had been a few Community daytrips of course, where they'd all gone outside the city, with the Sloan's dirt-bikes in tow. But Johnny and Kel wanted a week with just the two of them, which had been a little difficult. They couldn't risk coming out, so they had to be a bit theatrical about it.

First Roy and Johnny made public plans to go hiking and maybe rock climbing. Then they invited Kel along and he accepted. The day before their departure, however, Roy backed out, saying he'd had a fight with Joanne and wanted to make it up with her. Besides Kel would need all Johnny's concentration since it was his first time rock climbing and Johnny was playing instructor. Johnny had rolled his eyes over the whole thing, but the performance had been necessary.

So they got their week alone in a little cabin, just inside the Rockies. They fished, they hiked, and they rock climbed. They also made love in every possible way they could.

xxx

Johnny stepped into the living room and gazed at his mate for a moment. Kel was sitting on the couch going over some paperwork and entirely in his own little world. He frowned as he watched, hands running over his stomach in concern. “Kel. I think I need a physical.”

Kel didn't look up, but he did smile. “You just had one a few months ago.”

“I know,” He huffed and folded his arms. “I know...but that was before I you know, changed.”

“Johnny Love, I don't think that would affect your health. Joe and Jim have been changed for years now.”

“I guess.” The doubt was clear in the dragon's voice.

Kel finally looked up from the paperwork on his coffee table, to Johnny who was leaning against the archway separating the living room from the hall. The archway to the kitchen was just across the hall and the dinner Johnny was cooking smelled delicious. “You don't sound convinced.” Johnny shrugged, pouting now, and Kel tried to sound reassuring. “Mark told me that, medically, dragons are indistinguishable from humans while in their human form.”

“Yeah but...this has never happened before, so the only thing I can figure is being a dragon is the cause.”

Kel frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Johnny unfolded his arms and gestured to his entire body. “My weight gain.”

“What weight gain?” He eyed Johnny's lean body and wondered what exactly his lover was talking about.

“My body is getting thicker...especially at my middle.”

“Sweetheart, a lot of people's bodies thicken with age.”

Johnny flailed a bit and practically stomped his foot. “I'm not even thirty! And Kel...” 

Kel stood when he saw real worry in his dragon's eyes. “What is it Johnny?”

“I've been sick in the morning.”

“Sick?”

Johnny nodded. “My entire last shift, every morning I threw up everything, but by lunch I was fine.”

Kel stared at him, suddenly remembering their week in the mountains very clearly. At night Johnny had been insatiable for him, taking him...and then demanding to be taken. It had been familiar then; he just hadn't realized what it meant. Now though, a light was going off, he had after all read the journal that one Hannibal Heyes had kept. “We need to go see Mark and Katherine.”

“Mark's working tonight.”

“Katherine will be fine; she'll know what I'm talking about.”

“Okay.”

xxx

Once the stove was off and Sam was inside, they were in Kel's car and headed toward Malibu. They didn't talk on the way, Johnny too caught up in his worry of the unknown and Kel worried that he might be right. When they pulled into the enclosed driveway the only car there belonged to Katherine. That meant Johnny had been right about Mark working that night, not that Kel had doubted him. They stayed quiet as they got out of the car and walked up the steps to the front door. Katherine answered after the first series of knocks.

Her smile was bright and warm when she greeted them. “Johnny! Kel! I just finished warming up a pizza, if you're hungry.”

Kel gave her a regretful smile. “This isn't exactly a social call Katherine...”

She frowned and looked at Johnny, then him. “Oh?”

“I'd like to look at some of your journals.”

“Sure, come on in. You don't mind if I eat though do you?”

“Of course not.” Johnny assured her. “Carol home?”

“Nope, Carol is with friends at the movies.” She replied as they stepped inside and she closed the door behind them. “Anything in particular you want to look for?”

Kel nodded as he headed for the living room. “Breeding.”

Johnny tripped over the steps leading out of the foyer. “Say what?”

Katherine caught his arm and looked almost as alarmed, but at least she had an idea of what was going on. “When?”

He sighed and met her eyes. “Our week at the cabin.”

Her own eyes widened and she eyed Johnny. “Oh. This could get very complicated Kel.”

“I know.”

“What breeding?” Johnny asked. “There was no breeding! I mean that's impossible!” He looked to Katherine to back him up.

Her smile was sad and she squeezed his arm gently. “Johnny...my great-grandparents were a bonded pair...and they were both male. Jedediah Curry took dragon form and laid an egg. That egg hatched and my grandmother was born that way.”

Johnny pulled away from her, stumbling again, Kel caught him and helped him into the living room and got him settled on the couch. He looked at Katherine and barked out an order. “Get me a paper bag and a glass of water.” Katherine was gone in a second, returning with the paper bag first before disappearing into the kitchen. Kel got Johnny to breathe into the bag and by the time he'd calmed down some Katherine was back, a glass of water in her hand.

Johnny drank deeply and handed it back to her. “I wish someone had said something sooner.”

Kel wrapped an arm around him. “I'm sorry Johnny.”

Katherine put the almost empty glass on the coffee table by the bag. “None of us really thought about the possibility. The last pair I know of that did that were my great-grandparents...and it’s not something Jim or Joe have had to worry about.”

“Well I do apparently.” His voice was bitter and he let out a sigh. “I...I've been wanting to settle down, and I thought I had. I've got Kel and Sam.” He hung his head and fisted his hands in his hair. “How are we going to explain a baby?”

Kel's voice was tentative when he asked; “Do you want to keep-?”

“Of course I do!” Johnny's eyes flashed and his voice came out as a deep inhuman growl.

“Easy Johnny,” Kel told him. “That's fine. It’s entirely up to you.”

“Of course it is; it’s my body! But...how are we...”

Kel moved to kneel in front of him and cupped his face. “We'll find a way.”

“It might be easier than you think.” Katherine told them.

They both looked up at her and Johnny asked what they were both thinking. “How?”

“Well...”

xxx

Johnny looked up from the journal, eyes unseeing and mind racing. Katherine's great-grandfather, Hannibal Heyes, had kept it during his dragon's pregnancy. The man hadn't cataloged every waking moment of it, as he hadn't known what was happening to Jedediah Curry in the beginning. Once their friend Soapy Saunders had told them just what Curry was going through, however, Heyes wrote it all down. Everything he could remember about what his mate went through.

“Johnny?”

Johnny blinked, coming back to himself, and met Kel's eyes. “What?”

“You okay?”

“Yeah Kel. I'm okay.”

Kel moved closer and sat beside him on the bed. “You haven't said much since we got back from Malibu.”

“Well I've been reading; it’s good to be prepared.”

“I agree...but we need to talk about this.”

“You mean before the next dinner.”

“As close as we are, the others will want to congratulate us...if it’s something we want congratulations for.”

Johnny nodded. “It is.”

“You want to go along with Katherine's plan?”

“Well I've certainly dated enough women for it to be feasible don't you think?” His voice was bitter when he made the comment.

“Johnny. There's no shame in trying to find someone.”

“I'll never be able to put a mother on the birth certificate, not a real one.”

“I know.”

“Your name certainly can't go on there as the father.”

Kel smiled and cupped his cheek. “That's okay, I just...I never thought I'd get the chance to be a father. That's enough.”

Johnny finally found a smile of his own. “I hadn't thought of that...but you know we'll have a lot to worry about before the baby is even born. I go into dangerous situations all the time; I certainly can't take off work to have a baby.”

“We'll think of something.”

xxx

While Kel was at work the next day Johnny went back to his apartment, he needed to be back in his own space for a little while. As luck would have it though, Pete was at his door when he got to his floor. He paused for just a moment, and then trudged on; there was no reason to leave his Alpha standing in the hall like an unwanted guest.

“Johnny.”

“Pete. You talk to Katherine recently?”

“Yeah.”

“Thought so.” Johnny unlocked his apartment. “Come on in. I'll fix you some coffee...you have time for a cup?”

“Sure. I'm on P.M. watch today.”

Johnny nodded and fixed the pot, setting it on the stove. He faced Pete then, almost defiantly. “So...you got anything to say?”

“Yeah. Whatever you decide to do, you have the support of your Community behind you.”

Johnny nodded. “I'm keeping it...even if I knew how to abort it, I wouldn't.”

Pete grinned, like he was proud. “That's fine.”

“I just couldn't bear it...too many tribal women have had that choice taken from them.”

Now his Alpha was frowning, which made sense. Pete wouldn't know anything about that kind of thing. “How so?”

Johnny laid it all out for him and didn't pull any punches. “A lot of them went into a free clinic to have their appendix removed and while they were under the docs gave them a hysterectomy too.”

“I'm sorry.” The sorrow in his voice was real.

“The women never even know, not until they try to get pregnant. Just one more way the whites try to get rid of us.”

He could almost feel the anger and rage that suddenly emitted from Pete. “Johnny you could lay a hundred eggs and we'd do our absolute best to make sure every child lived.”

Johnny believed Pete would go that far too...which was a relief. “Thanks Pete...that means a lot. It does. Luckily I'm pretty sure there's only going to be one.” He turned the heat down so the coffee could perk without overflowing.

“Jean, Katherine, and Joanne will be happy to babysit.”

“I know. I have all that figured out...what I don't know, is how I'm gonna hide the fact that I'm pregnant.”

“We'll think of something.”

“That's what everyone keeps telling me.”

xxx

Two days later Johnny was back on shift with Roy, and none of them were any closer to a solution. Johnny was, however, almost ready to set Roy on fire and told him so. His partner's staring was starting to get to him.

“Sorry.”

“Don't be sorry, just stop staring.”

“It’s a beautiful thing Johnny.”

“I bet you wouldn't think so if you couldn't keep your breakfast down for an entire week.”

“Well maybe not...but I gotta say I'm a little envious, carrying a life and bringing it into the world isn't something just anyone can do-” Johnny elbowed Roy in the ribs just as two men came around the engine. One was the P.R. man for the County Fire Department...the other was an unknown. Their arrival brought the conversation to a halt, which Johnny didn't mind...but he could have done without a screenwriter following them around for most of the day.

 

Several hours later and Johnny was alone in Kel's office, curled up on the couch. He and Roy had just delivered a baby in the backroom of a market, and it had been a little too close to his current predicament. The door opened to reveal Kel, carrying a tray from the cafeteria.

“I brought you something...do you feel like eating?”

Johnny's stomach made a very audible rumble. “What is it?”

“A hot roast beef sandwich and a glass of milk.”

“Good, I don't think I could eat Chet's burned chili back at the station.”

“Well, now you won't have too.” Kel sat beside him, tray balanced on his lap. “Are you alright?”

“I'd be better if everyone would stop asking me that.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay...” Johnny laughed a little. “You know what happened today will be us in a few months.”

Kel looked puzzled at his comment. “What will?”

“Parents.”

He leaned back a bit, as if the idea was really hitting him. “Guess we should start getting the house ready.”

“What do you mean?”

Kel laughed and it was nervous. “We don't even have a crib Johnny.”

“Oh man, I hadn't even thought about that!”

“Well, one thing at a time. You eat. Roy is restocking your supplies for the squad.” Kel handed him the tray and gave him a kiss. “I'll see you later.”

“Sure...thanks Kel.”

 

Things got weird at the end of the day. 

There was a fire at a toy factory and Johnny could have lived his whole life without seeing those charred toys. That was just creepy, the weird part though...happened when he went inside to get a second trapped man. A beam of light nearly hit him. It was green and knocked a box of toys over nearly on the man he was trying to save.

It happened again; Johnny dodged it, whatever it was and got the man out. When the tanks against the back wall exploded Johnny kept the fire back. He wasn't sure how exactly...but the flames never touched them. Perhaps it was similar to what Joe had done to the restaurant fire when he'd changed, but Johnny didn't have time to think much on it.

Those beams of green light had him puzzled though.

xxx

They had gone out for dinner after their shift at Rampart, a place close to one of their favorite parks so they could go for a stroll afterward. Joe had parked the car in the visitors' lot and, hand in hand, they'd walked along the paved path. They were alone, not many people went for walks in the middle of the week. Joe took the moment of quiet to start an important conversation.

“Do you ever think about it?”

“About what?” Dix asked, glancing up at him.

“Settling down.”

Dixie held up their clasped hands. “Joe, we're about as settled down as two people can get.”

He chuckled and smiled. “I meant on the record.”

“Oh.” She nodded in understanding. “You mean married, children, and the whole nine yards?”

“Yeah.”

She gave a little shrug. “I suppose I could move into your house.”

Joe gave a little cough, suddenly nervous. “Or we could pick out a house together. Whatever you want.”

Dix nodded in casual agreement. “One with a garage so you can tinker and a home office for me.”

“And a backyard with a fence.” He added; his voice hopeful.

“For the kids?” Her smile was coy.

Joe felt his heat. “Um, later sure, but I still have a dog.”

“And there's still my fish.”

“Pets, a house with a garage, a yard, and a office for all that horrible paperwork. It'll be perfect.”

Dix laughed and leaned into him. “It does sound nice.”

“Is it too much?”

“Not at all.” She looked up at him. “Know anyone with a house for sale?”

“No, but I know a realtor.”

“That's a start.”

Joe started to say something, but the air started rushing around them, almost like a cyclone. Dixie's feet left the ground and Joe shifted, grabbing her up taking flight, leaving the park behind, far below.

“Joe I'm okay.” They both looked down. The cyclone was gone and the park looked undisturbed.

“What on Earth?” He wondered aloud.

“I don't know,” Dix told him, “but you better land. We can't hide in the night sky forever.”

“We could if the clouds were low enough. I'd blend right in.”

“That's true, but it’s a clear night. Look down at the lot, there's no one around the car. We should be able to land without anyone seeing us.”

“Hang on Dix.” He glided to the ground, set her gently on her feet and landed beside her. He looked around them, just in case, his long ears up and twitching listening for any possible threats. Even his frill was expanded, not something Joe did often.

“Joe.”

Joe shifted back. “Whatever it was, it’s gone now.”

“Not an ordinary cyclone then.”

“No. Like you said Dix. There's not a cloud in the sky...and smog certainly doesn't act like that.”

She scoffed. “I'd be worried if it did.” Dix looked up at the clear sky, then back at Joe. “Something to mention at the next meeting.”

“Yeah. Your place or mine?”

“Let’s go to your house tonight. We can talk about a place for us some more.”

“Sure thing Dix.”

xxx

It was a typical day on patrol...except for their topic of conversation. Jim wouldn't drop it and Pete really wished he would.

“I just can't imagine it.” Jim told him for what had to be the third time.

“Uh huh.”

“He's got to be pretty scared.”

Pete rolled his eyes. “Probably.”

“You know Jean's already offered to babysit.”

“Good.”

Jim was quiet for all of five seconds. “How do you think he's going to handle it?”

“I suppose the best he can.”

Jim stared at him, dumbfounded. “Is that all you're gonna say?”

“Jim, what do you want me to say?” Jim was his best friend, but sometimes he just got exasperated with the man.

“Having a family is a big step...and Johnny's gonna lay an egg.”

“Not right away, he's got a few months.”

“You don't seem thrilled.”

“I'm not thrilled, I'm worried.”

“For Johnny?” Jim asked. “That's kinda obvious Pete.”

“For all of us...in case there's a witness we can't trust.”

“Oh. Yeah. That would be bad. But, on the bright side, Johnny will be the first dragon to lay an egg in almost a hundred years.”

“That we know of.”

“Right. What else is making you so surly?”

Pete huffed out a sigh. “I don't want to lay an egg.”

“You're not.” Jim laughed at him, as if he were ridiculous for even thinking such a thing.

“I might. Someday.”

“Pete the only way you could lay an egg was if...” Jim blushed a little, finally understanding what Pete what thinking. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh. If I find my soulmate and they're a man I'll end up in the same predicament Johnny is in.”

“Only if you...well...you know...”

Pete shot him a look. “If your soulmate was a man do you think one of you would be satisfied with the same role every time you made love?”

“Well...Jean and I do like to switch things up...don't tell her I told you that.”

Pete finally had a smile for him. “Wild horses couldn't drag it out of me...but you see what I mean.”

“Yeah...I hadn't thought about that before.”

“That's because your soulmate is a woman.”

“Yeah I guess.”

Before Pete could say another word something slammed against Jim's side of the car and shoved them across the street and into a pole. Cars swerved to avoid them and Pete flicked on their reds and emergency flashers.

“Jim you okay?”

“Nothing's broken...but I'm gonna be a walking bruise for a couple of days.”

“Same here...but more like a week for me. Did you see what hit us?”

“Nothing.”

Pete frowned and winced when he shifted to look around. “Something hit us.”

“I'm telling you Pete, nothing was there.”

He stared at his partner. “That's not possible.”

“I know, but I didn't see anything.”

Pete took a moment to think on that...was such a thing possible? There was so much they didn't know. “So something invisible attacked us?”

“Maybe? Are there invisible creatures that attack dragons?”

“I don't know...that would be a question for Mark and Katherine. Can you open your door?”

Jim tried his door, it held fast. “No You?”

“I think so.” Pete looked at the pole and how it was wedged into the side of the car in front of his door. “That pole is lodged further up...Mac isn't gonna be happy.”

“About the car or our invisible attacker?”

He raised a brow at Jim. “Let’s keep the invisible part to ourselves.”

“Right. Call it in?”

“Well we're certainly not getting back to the station like this.”

“I guess not.”

xxx

Johnny pointed at his partner with his fork. “And then Roy told me I imagined the whole thing and blamed the paint fumes in the toy factory.”

“I admit it does sound farfetched,” Kel told him. “But in light of what else happened we need to assume we're being targeted.”

“Thank you.” Johnny smiled at his mate before shooting a glare at Roy.

Roy rolled his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. “I said I was sorry.”

Pete tried to keep them on track. “Do we know who or what it could be?”

Joe shrugged. “No idea.”

“Well,” Dix took a sip of water and a moment to gather her thoughts. “So far we've got Johnny's strange lights, the cyclone that came after me and Joe...”

Pete nodded. “And the invisible hammer attack on mine and Jim's patrol car. He's sorry for missing dinner Johnny, Jean wanted him home tonight.”

“No problem.”

“So we have no idea what's happening?” Joe looked as glum as they'd ever seen him.

“Chimera's maybe?” Kel asked.

They all looked to Mark. “Nothing in my journals mentions anything like that.”

Joanne nodded in agreement. “It could be any number of things. Pagan Gods were the ones who convinced humans to hunt dragons.”

Katherine groaned; her voice rich with dismay. “So we could be dealing with a whole new magical creature...or a Pagan God. That's kind of scary.”

“Yeah.” Pete eyed the rest of his food, suddenly not hungry anymore. “I'm not sure how we're going to fight something like that.”

“I did okay.” Joe grumbled.

“We ran way Joe; we never actually saw anything or fought.”

“All we can do is keep our guard up...” Kel tossed his napkin to the table. “I don't like it.”

Mark shook his head. “None of us do.”

xxx

“Hey John, where's Roy?”

Johnny looked over his shoulder at Chet Kelly as he changed into his uniform. “Now Chet, how would I know that? I practically just got here.”

Chet was almost gleeful. “Yeah, and you're late.”

“Only by a minute,” He huffed and threw a shirt at Chet, “and I'm sure Roy will be here soon.”

 

Twenty minutes later there was still no sign of Roy and when Johnny called his home there was no answer. Captain Stanley was really getting aggravated at the unusual lack of responsibility that Roy was showing by not calling in.

“Gage I've already called in for a substitute.”

“Thanks Cap.” Johnny replied, still staring at the phone, willing it to ring.

“Any idea what's keeping Roy?”

He shook his head. “No idea...and I've already called Rampart and Community General...he'd go to one of those if he, Joanne, or the kids were hurt or sick.” Johnny finally looked at Captain Stanley. “I'm getting worried...hang on.” He picked up the phone, ignoring the raised brow Cap gave him and dialed.

“You already tried his house John.”

Katherine picked up on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Hey Katherine, its Johnny...”

“Hey Johnny.”

“Listen, have you heard from Joanne or Roy today?”

“No, why?”

“Because he didn't show up for our shift and he didn't call in. He always calls in when he can't make it to work. I'm not getting an answer at his house and he's not at Rampart or Community General.”

“Want me to drive by the house? See if they left a note pinned to the door?”

“Yeah if you don't mind.”

“Not all...it’s strange that they haven't called anyone.”

“Thanks Kat.” He hung up and was met with quite a few stares. “What?”

“New girlfriend Johnny?” Chet asked before meowing like a cat.

“Don't be ridiculous, she's married.”

Captain Stanley was grinning as well. “Doe her husband know you call her?”

“Oh for the love of—yes. They're friends of mine and Roy's. Doctor Mark Sloan and his wife Katherine. Doc works over at Community General. Katherine's gonna go by Roy and Joanne's to see if they left a note or something.”

Stanley's smile had slipped away. “You think it’s necessary?”

“Cap, when have you ever known Roy to not call in when he couldn't be here?”

“Good point. I really hope your worry is unfounded though.”

“Me too Cap.”

 

But it wasn't.

 

They had three runs back to back as soon as Roy's replacement got his uniform on. So Johnny was ready for some tea and lunch in the worst way; tea because the baby apparently didn't like coffee.

When he walked into the station kitchen though he froze, Katherine was sitting at the table with her own tea and pale as a ghost. “Kat? What's wrong?”

“They're gone.”

Johnny felt his knees shake a little. “Gone? What do you mean gone?”

She looked up, eyes dark with sorrow. “The house was completely empty. All their things: furniture, clothes and cars. Just gone. Just like them. Even the dog.”

Johnny shook his head. “We just saw them the other night at Kel's.”

“I know. I called Pete from a payphone. He got a couple of detectives out there...no leads right now.” The first tears fell and she wiped them away. “I've already called Mark. Jim called Jean.” She hiccupped. “Could you...could you call Dixie and the others. I don't know that I can go through it again right now.”

“Yeah.” He nodded, though it was the last thing he wanted to do. “Yeah, sure Kat.”

She stood with a sob and hugged him tight; he wrapped his arms around her, shared in the moment of sorrow. Then he looked up to see the other men of Station 51, their own shock and worry just beginning to set in.

It was the worst day he could remember. His best friend and his family were just...gone.

xxx

A week later and not only did the detectives on the case have no leads, but Dix and Joe went missing. Neither one showed up for work at Rampart and when Kel couldn't get an answer at Dix's apartment, or Joe's house, he called Pete. Pete and Jim swung by both places to find them just as empty as Roy's, and just like Roy's house, even Joe's dog was gone...and Dixie's gold fish.

Detectives still had no leads, even when their questioning ousted Dix and Joe as a couple. It didn't lead anywhere; their relationship had nothing to do with their disappearance, nor the DeSoto's. Besides, Dix and Joe had been planning on moving in together and tying the knot officially. The only secret they were able to keep with the questioning and thorough investigation that went on was Kel and Johnny's relationship.

xxx

When Jim, Jean, and little Jimmy disappeared a few days later it shook the Community horribly. They were gone without a trace, house as empty as the others. Pete was filled with a rage he'd never known and spent every moment not on the job either at Mark and Kat's, or Kel's house. He spent every night at one place or the other, hoping to protect what was left of his people. 

It was a futile effort.

xxx

Pete's apartment, Johnny's place, and Kel's house were all empty. Cleaned out as if they'd never been lived in. Every speck of them, including Sam, had disappeared.

Katherine let the tears fall as she walked around the empty house; Kel's home had been the last place they'd checked. The front door opened when they tried their key and they had gone through the empty house in a daze.

She moved back toward the living room where Mark was standing in the open doorway, apparently he'd been back outside. He shook his head. “It’s worse than we thought.”

“Mark, that's not possible.”

“Katherine.” He swallowed his grief. “The neighbors didn't see anything...in fact they say the house has been empty for years.”

“But-we're here all the time. We didn't imagine any them, they were real.”

He nodded. “Joanne once said that dragons of old simply disappeared sometimes.”

“Of old. As in thousands of years ago.”

“Honey.” He moved out of the doorway and toward her. “Heyes and Curry simply disappeared too. No trace of them was ever found.”

“It was easier to lose track of people back then.”

“Katherine...”

She sighed and moved into his arms. “I know, and you're probably right. I just don't understand why anything would take them. Dragons have been living in secret for so long, there's no reason to go after us like this.”

He held her tight. “I agree. Come on. Let’s go home.”

“Sure,” Her laugh was bitter and little hysterical. “Let's see if we've been cleaned out.”

They locked up the house and left their spare key under a rock...they wouldn't be needing it anymore. Dejected, scared, and worried they got in their car and headed toward Malibu. It was getting late, and the sun was just setting, when their car was surrounded by a glowing light.

Mark gripped her hand tight and they shared a tear filled gaze before everything went white.

xxx

“Mark! You're going to be late!”

Just as she finished calling out to him, Mark dashed into the kitchen, passed her so he could slug his coffee down and gobble a piece of toast. Then he kissed her goodbye before he left the kitchen again and headed toward the front door. She followed him.

“Mark.”

He stopped in the foyer, hand on the door handle. “Yes honey?”

She looked down. “You're only wearing one shoe.”

He followed her gaze and blinked at his feet. “Now how did that happen?” With a sigh he raced back down the hall, and returned from their room with both shoes on his feet. He gave her another goodbye kiss and left with a wave. Katherine laughed and shook her head as she closed the door.

“Carol!”

“I'm ready!” Carol came down the hall, much more together than her father had been. “Are you driving me or is Anna?”

“We're taking my car. Anna and I are going shopping after we drop you, David, and Chelsie off at school.”

Carol rolled her eyes. “You're already going Christmas shopping?”

“Not all of it. Anna's thinking about redoing her living room, we may be a while going through paint samples.”

“Have fun with that.”

“Go next door and see if they're ready.”

“Sure Mom.”

Katherine smiled as her youngest went out the door, books in hand. A moment later she was getting her purse and locking up the house. The next she was walking next door as well.

Her Community was tiny, only she and Mark knew what they were, and that was okay. Anna, her kids, and their own were enough. It wasn't much, but it was theirs.

XXX


End file.
